


sea of dreams

by mewrobot



Category: End Roll (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 05:42:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10713387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mewrobot/pseuds/mewrobot
Summary: A short little one-shot I wrote several months ago. Russell takes the Informant to the Seaside Festival.





	sea of dreams

“It’s already Day 6 of your Happy Dream,” the Informant reminds Russell. “Things are starting to wrap up. You’ve been doing so well, the folks on the other side seem pretty pleased with you. Well, as pleased as someone could be knowing that they’ve made a deranged maniac feel guilt.”  
Russell only listens, nodding. He never says much to the Informant, they already know each other too well to need that many words. Well, at least Russell doesn’t need to say much. The Informant must like hearing the sound of his own voice.  
“That said,” the Informant continues, “You ought to go pick a partner for your patrol, and while you’re at it, you can probably take ‘em to the Seaside festival. Lots of fun stuff goin’ on over there, it’d help to get some fun times in before everything comes to a close tomorrow.” He smiles with closed eyes. “You’d better choose wisely, they’ll be important!”  
Russell thinks for a moment, staring at the tiled floor. He taps his bat against the floor.  
“So… someone who’s important to me, then?” Russell thinks out loud. “Someone I want to be beside…”  
“Okay. I’ll look for someone.” Russell turns around and leaves the infor!Mashun building.

The Informant exhales through his nose, watching him go. He spends most of the day alone, with not much else to do once Russell gets the information he needs for the day. It’d be nice if he’d stay a while… not that he’d admit that out loud. He takes a sip of juice from one of the glasses on the table near the entrance, the other glass still empty and waiting. The fruit basket is still full, and the contents still fresh. It is a dream after all, food doesn’t have to rot.  
He lies down on the couch, not expecting sleep to come. Sleep isn’t that important to him, since he can’t have any dreams himself. He wonders if his own dreams would be any different than Russell’s…

Time passes, and the Informant hears the door creak open. What, did Russell forget something? The Informant sits back up, rubbing his eyes and looking just a bit annoyed. It is Russell at the door, with that same blank expression as always.  
“What d'you need now?” the Informant asks, not bothering to get up off the couch. To his surprise, Russell just sits down next to him.

“Everyone’s got partners for the patrol and the festival.” Russell says. “Cody’s going with Gardenia…. Dogma, Tabasa, and Kantera are all going together…”

“Aw, left out again?” the Informant says with a small sneer. “Even in your Happy Dream… well, at least we’ve got each other, huh?”

“Well, actually that’s why I came back here.” Russell says, looking up at the Informant, with an uncharacteristic softness in his expression.  
“Wait, what?” The Informant didn’t expect that sort of response.

“Yeah. I actually wanted the townspeople to all go with each other. They’re happier that way, I think.” Russell responds, actually even looking a little sad. “They deserve to have fun with each other on this last night. And they’ll be safer with each other on the patrol. And… I actually wanted to ask you to go with me.”

“Wh–Really?” The Informant blurts out, also dropping his typical exterior. “Why me?”

“Well… you know more about this world than anyone else. So you know me better than anyone else. I’ll be safe with you, I won’t feel that guilt for a while and I’ll know you’re real because I’m real. I think.” Russell says, looking off at wall. “We never got to go to festivals or have fun at parties. You want to go too, don’t you?”

“I… Huh. I guess I’ve never gotten to leave this place. And… we do know each other more than the rest, don’t we?” the Informant says. “Alright. Yes! Let’s go, then!” He stands up, with a genuine smile for once.

“Oh, and I’m taking this with me.” the Informant picks up the fruit basket.

—

The air at Seaside is warm, and lightly sprayed with saltwater. The Informant’s eyes are wide and darting around, like he’s never seen anything other than the inside of infor!Mashun. He’s dragging Russell around by the arm to all the different stands. He pays for at least 20 fortunes, laughing at how wrong every single one of them is.  
“He’s got the right idea, though.. maybe I should start charging you more, hm, Russell?” the Informant says. “At least with me, you know it’s reliable.”  
Russell only goes 'hmm’ in response, distracted by his melting ice cream cone. The Informant insisted on using the fruit for something, and chopped some of it up to sprinkle on the ice cream. He was a bit over-eager to use the knife…

“That reminds me, I should buy some festival food…” the Informant says. “Should I get yakisoba? Or maybe a burger? Or maybe both! I could combine them!”

“Sounds gross.”

“Yeah, yeah… and it’d be expensive to buy both…” The Informant spots an unattended burger at a bench, the Draken previously holding it wrapped up in lotto-purchasing. The Informant takes it, not being at all stealthy.

“I thought we were supposed to be good kids. Or at least trying to be.” Russell comments, with raised eyebrows.

The Informant chuckles, happily munching on his stolen meal. “You know that’s not our style. We’re rotten kids to the core.”  
There’s almost something comforting in that, Russell thinks. “Yeah. I guess so.”

There’s a small silence, Russell staring thoughtfully out to the sea, where Muscles are flexing and Kelpies are floating aimlessly. Seaside really is a nice place, which makes Russell feel a twinge of sadness that it wont last. The closing ritual is starting in the background. (The Informant found the torch they needed, but kept it hostage for a ransom of 100 Walnuts. Russell eventually wrestled it out of his grasp and gave it back to the Kelpie in charge.)

“Even if we can’t be good, we can still do good, right?” he says. “We can do good for others, maybe… and ourselves.”

The Informant lies down on the sand. “Mmh. Sure.”

They don’t need to say a whole lot more, they already know each other enough. And they both know how much the other needed a day like this.


End file.
